so, you may or may not have noticed: I decided to take a break, for a few weeks, from the interactive aspects of this website, as real life became a bit too overwhelming. actually, this seems to have applied to a number of us here - at least amongst the crowd I’m linked to - so may we all have serene months ahead of us to keep in place the little pleasures that mean a lot. apologies for just disappearing...it really was unavoidable.

this Jenny Siler book - I’m very excited, because it means I can read two Spy novels in a row by women authors...because I also latched on to something called The Silent Room, by Mari Hannah. now, it’s my impression that these are not necessarily archetypal Spy novels - this Siler effort does not seem to be selling itself as an Espionage-oriented plot, if you just go by the back cover, and the Mari Hannah book is only slightly less shy about its Spy trappings - but I’ve done my homework when it comes to finding women Espionage novelists who had been, up to now, off my radar. and these two novels, it seems, will fit in as a Summer of Spies double-bill quite nicely!